What is psychosis?

Psychosis can be regarded as serious ” states of confusion”, and actually describes very profound nervous breakdowns. In young people such breakdowns can mark you for life, particularly it the time between onset of the illness and start of treatment is long.

We consider the psychosis as a dynamic process, where the psychotic breakthrough is a stage in the development of the illness. Before the psychosis occurs, the patient has often had more general and unspecific signs of psychiatric illness, for instance such as sleeping difficulties, anxiety, depression and isolation.

We know that the time it takes from a person develops such a serious “state of confusion” for the first time and until treatment is started, is very long. In Rogaland, as in rest of the country, it can take years from the first signs of illness occurs to the patient receives treatment from the psychiatric health services. We are talking about a delay in the treatment. On average this is approximately two years.

We think it is possible to prevent, alleviate or delay the breaking out of psychosis if treatment is started on an earlier stage of the illness development. We also think that future prospects, the prognosis, is better when treatment is started early. The treatment itself will also probably be easier and of shorter duration.

WHEN SHOULD YOU CONTACT A DOCTOR?

Many hesitate to contact a doctor even if they suspect that something is wrong. The boundaries between what you can manage to master yourself and problems you need help to solve, are often unclear.
Here have we set up two examples that can be of help if one wonders whether one should seek help or not.

NORMAL REACTIONS ON DIFFICULTIES IN LIFE

There are many types of behavior that really is normal, although it can be perceived as the opposite of friends, family and teachers. We are different and can have different reactions to difficult periods in life.